Bansuri

Bansuri is a special kind of flute available in India, which is made of a single hollow bamboo shaft engineered with six or seven holes, associated sentimentally with Lord Krishna, who as a player of this flute not only charmed the Gopika girls, but also mesmerised large number of cattle, his flute music in, fact bringing not only joy but also protection for the herds of cow around, due to which fact Lord Krishna acquired another name as protector of cows,Gopala.

Buddhisg paintings of first century depicts Lord Krishna using Bansuri during His Rasa lila dance sequences  of Lord Krishna with his celestial girl friend Radha, this Indian musical instrument comes today in lengths of 14 inches, the player of which giving such melodious music, mostly as an accompaniment for other musical instruments or vocal recitals, while solo performances with Bansuri by Music Wizards like Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pt.PannaLalGhoshetc, the instrument itself is now globally famous in various sizes and lengths, even up to 40 inches.

Origin of Bansuri

If one translates the Sanskrit term Bansuri, one will come up with a meaning of Melodious Bamboo Stick, as the syllables Ban and Sur refer to Bamboo and Melody, while there are two types of Bansuri which are popular in India, namely, Transverse and Fipple,  the former variety is bigger in size suitable for superior control and variations in sound deliveries it is the preferred instrument to go with Indian Classical music, whereas the Fipple is of smaller size used by cowherds belonging to the folk music variety.

Popular musicians like PanditPannalalGhosh were responsible for bringing Bansuri to higher level classical music, experimenting with the instruments design in terms of length, bore and the interval between holes,arriving at the right size to perform melodies of lower octaves, ultimately bringing out Bansuris of bigger bores and an additional hole in the instrument, for getting into the nuances of the music.

Another musical legend who promoted Bansuri’s importance and fame was PanditRaghunathPrasanna, who tried various subtleties of music through this instrument, providing a strong footage to his Gharana by inducting his own family members into the art, while Flute maestros like Pt. BholanathPrasanna, Pt. Hari Prasad chaurasia, and PtRajendraPrasanna were his disciples, who rose to the fame of  international level.

Design

Good amount of care and skill is required for making a Bansuri instrument, which requires selecting and seasoning right kind of bamboo, which should be thin walled and evenly formed , with the cross section in circular shape uniformly grown with long internodes, which may be available in only in certain sections of forests, and then bringing it to the shape of a Bansuri, while such raw material for this product are available only in the forest regions of Assam and Kerala.
Naturally formed sediments of  resins inside the bamboo tubes are also important for further seasoning of the bamboo sticks to be formed into Bansuri musical instruments, and after seasoning, the next step would be to burn the blowing hole first at the right place, with the assistance of a cork stopper, red hot skewers are applied to make holes in preference to drilling, because the later method would cause vertical cracks making the entire exercise useless. The artist who makes the flutes, has to be very conscious of the availability of the Bamboo material and the processes are so intricate that the flute maker can not afford to make even the smallest mistake, but when one comes up with the good quality of Bansuri, it is a pleasure for him as well as for the playing expert The right positioning of the holes, the right manner in which they should be made out, stabilising those holes in such a manner that they will withstand or release the air in the right measure as the musical notes demand, every part of it is a wonderful phenomenon with the design and